R. Marvin Fox, in “Heschel, Intuition, and the Halakhah”, is critical of what he considers an over-reliance on intuition in R. Heschel’s philosophy of religion. The common objection to any intuition-based theory, as Fox argues, “is that we have no reliable way to distinguish between those experiences which are genuine perceptions of a higher reality and experiences which are delusions or hallucinations.” Perhaps more important, though, is Fox’s second objection. The kind of awe-inspiring, life-changing experiences that Heschel has in mind are limited to prophets and, at best, the great religious personalities of each generation. “A conception of religion which is rooted in such experiences automatically restricts the realm of faith to a small group of the spiritually elite.”
According to Fox, Heschel offers three ways for achieving such intuition. He paraphrases Heschel as follows: “Man can come to a knowledge of God by sensing His presence in the world, in things… sensing His presence in the Bible… [and] sensing his presence in sacred deeds”. The problem with the first two, as Fox points out (I think, correctly), is that they are only available to the already-believing individual (again, the spiritually elite). (more…)